Opera 10 Browser Review: 6 cool features that make it stand out

Opera, one of the oldest names in the browser world, has just released its latest version. There must be something that enabled Opera to survive for so long. And looking at its track record, it’s only natural for users to expect something special with this version 10.

Being an Opera long-time fan (back to the days of Netscape vs. IE), I’m also curious about what goodies Opera 10 has to offer. So I gave Opera 10 – Mac version for me – a test drive, and here is my Opera browser review with several nice features that I like.

Speed Dial those pages

The first thing that users will notice is the “speed dial” page which will always be shown every time a new blank page is opened. The idea is that users will be able to access their favorite pages using these pre-configured “dial-pad”. Something like “Top Sites” in Safari.

There are nine default boxes, click an empty one to add a web page and click on an assigned one to go directly to that page.

Users can configure how many dial-pad boxes they want – from 4 (2 x 2) to 25 (5 x 5), what background image to show, or whether they want to hide or show speed dial.

What makes this feature special is the ability to synchronize these speed dial boxes to other Operas in other places, even under different OSes and different devices.

Link with Opera Link

The synchronization process discussed above is done using a feature called Opera Link. Using this service, users can synchronize Speed Dial, Bookmarks, Personal Bar, Typed History, Notes, and Searches.

But before using it, users should sign up first for an Opera account.

I think this synchronization feature could be Opera’s strongest selling point because of the existence of Opera Mini. As one of the leaders in mobile browsers, Opera Mini could “persuade” its users to try the desktop version just to have all of their data synchronized between devices.

Playing with Panels

Opera has a customized side panel which can be opened by clicking the “Panels” button next to tabs.

Users can fill in the panels with useful tools like Bookmarks, Widgets, Notes and History, by going to Tools –> Appearance menu

and then choosing the Panels tab.

Mail and Chat

Opera has an email client built-in the browser. Even though some users might prefer a stand-alone client, others would likely embrace the idea of Mail-Browser integration.

The first step of using this client is creating an account.

Beside email, there are other kinds of account that could be set, such as Newsgroups and IRC chat. (I wonder whether anybody still use these two classics and I also wonder why Opera included them).

Peeking through tabs

This one is a simple feature which I think is very useful. Users can peek into the background tabs just by hovering the mouse above the tab.

Turbo-charge the browsing experience

Opera 10 has another unique feature called Opera Turbo. Opera claims that this feature is able to boost the Internet bandwidth speed on slow connections by using Opera proxy servers to compress data and image traffic before they reach the browser.

To enable the feature, just click on the Opera Turbo’s teeny-weeny button on the bottom-left corner of the window.

Users should customize the turbo setting first before using it. There are three settings available: Automatic, On and Off.

Those with slow internet connections will be grateful for this free service provided by Opera as there are many similar services out there that charge high monthly fees for more or less the same features.

Surely, there are many more features in Opera 10 such as mouse gestures and widget support (similar to addons for Firefox), but for now, I’ll limit myself to these favorite features of mine.

And if you think you still need a little bit “nudge” to try Opera, please look at the CPU usage comparison between Opera and our favorite Firefox. (Those are dynamic numbers which always change slightly from time to time, but you get the picture, right?)

One more thing, for this Opera browser review I used Opera for Mac, but I assume the features would be the same under different OS. Opera 10 is available for Windows, Mac, Linux, Solaris, FreeBSD, QNX, OS/2 and BeOS.

Do you use Opera? Which features do you like? Share your thoughts and opinion in the comments section below.

Ben

September 14, 2009

Killer feature – you can right click on a page (sorry, not with a Mac right?) and there’s an option to ‘open with…’ followed by a list of browsers.

Killer feature – as most people have Widescreen monitors, the option to have tabs on the side as live thumbnails is excellent. 6 or 7 tabs expand nicely to a preview button and these are simply scrolled by using the mouse gesture (Right mouse button and scroll the wheel – though in Linux I’d prefer to do it Unix style and simply roll the mouse wheel hovering over the tabs).

Overall, Firefox looks stronger. Firefox 3.7 is faster, and the add-ons provide some excellent features (flashblock and downloadhelper for browsing Youtube for example) but this isn’t enough to make me switch. I always start with Opera, and use Firefox as an add-on.

Jai

September 17, 2009

Nope, works fine on a Mac.

Jai

September 17, 2009

(Sorry, TLI – Too Little Information)

I meant to say that the option to [Right-Click] and select Open With -> works fine on a Mac.

Opera’s crap isn’t even close to what is available in other browsers. What they offer are the same thing you could put together yourself as a simple HTML file that you set as your default homepage.

rfmx

October 23, 2009

Yes you can make your own speed dial, I made one for my IE at work, but it is much easier with opera you just have to click and edit, no manual editing. Also the speed dials show an updated thumbnail of the site, with my IE speed dial I had to screen shot web pages to create a visual. Also with added themes, and animations, and transparency. I would like to see you make a html speed dial that matches these features.

Something like that repeated for each entry would work if you really want dynamic thumbnails so badly. Heck, you even get the page properly preloaded so you’ll save some whooping milliseconds loading the page \o/

I would personally prefer having just favicons with a list of urls if I would do it myself.

Of course both the favicons and iframes could be automated via JavaScript.
Oh, also, I hope you realize that themes would be done via CSS? Transparency and animations can be done in CSS as long as it doesn’t have to be compatible with old browsers like Internet Explorer or Opera.

Still, the above doesn’t really mean anything in this discussion.
My point, how unclear however it may have, is that you Opera fanatics are plainly wrong when cry out “FIRST!!111!” about every single thing that you can think of.

bob

October 23, 2009

The point, te, is that for those of us who don’t want to get yet another extension and don’t want to bother editing HTML/JS/CSS, Opera’s built-in speed dial is a great time saver. Yes, you can do that same effect through other means but none is as convenient as Opera speed dial, and yes, Opera was the first to include it as an in-browser feature. If you don’t like Opera “fanatics” so much, go rant somewhere else. You won’t convert anyone here.

Oh, so you finally realize that it isn’t something of Opera’s creation?
I’m not the one saying that browsers ‘steal’ stuff here, it’s you ‘people’.
I won’t go anywhere until you stop crying about stuff that were made before Opera even existed and chanting “proper attribution only counts after Opera added it!”.

If you want a timesaver, try keywords or a proper addressbar.
Another time-saver, if you’re one of those who only ever visit three websites is to set a proper homepage to always have those sites loaded.

bob

October 23, 2009

Well then thanks for ruining this discussion for me. Your insistence on the “truth” is not at all productive. We all praise the ease and convenience of speed dial, and because someone said Opera was the first, you have to start ranting and won’t let up. I certainly won’t continue enabling you.

Ranting? Whatever you like to call it, someone has to say something lest the masses actually take the nonsense Opera users spout for the “truth”.

rfmx

October 23, 2009

Opera has the speed dial and a top sites list which is accessed by clicking the address bar and a drop menu appears with a button that says “top 10″ From here it will show you the top 10 visited sites.

Chris H

Tan The Man

macuser

September 13, 2009

Opera is getting more and more bloated :( How can it even compete with Google Chrome?

cousin333

September 13, 2009

Define bloat! Among all popular browsers, Opera has the smallest installer and installation directory. According to many tests, the cold and warm start is among the bests. The UI is also quite responsive. The speed difference is mainly due to rendering style differences between WebKit and Presto. One field, where Opera falls behind (yet) is JS execution speed. Every other browser have their own kind of super fast JS engine (V8 for Chrome, Nitro for Safari, Tracemonkey for Firefox). Opera’s new Carakan is not ready yet, but it seems very promising.

Ben

Opera’s weakness won’t be in bloat. It’s generally very tight and feels (in terms of responsiveness and speed) half way between a Webkit browser and Gecko.

Opera’s weakness will simply be that Firefox is showing such a massive improvement lately, and the Linux community generally prefer to choose the Open Source Mozilla alternative.

Personally, I support CHOICE above any browser. I use and support Epiphany (webkit) browser which relies on the Gecko engine.

When someone with a name like ‘Macuser’ to ask how Opera can compete with Chrome – I’m curious why you wouldn’t just use Safari. On Mac, it’s about twice as fast. Speed isn’t the only issue, though, and Opera is simply very nice to use.

jim

September 14, 2009

The former versions of opera were slow and and page rendering were very bad…Even though other features were good this slowness and page rendering issue kept me away from opera…but opera 10 is rock solid…it is very fast and it renders the page correctly…turbo is very nice also…

I would love to try epiphany again now…i tried epiphany gecko before …but it was slow…now i’ll love to try epiphany in webkit…thanks for the suggestion…

bob

October 1, 2009

Yeah because the Linux community is so influential in the Browser wars, with the Linux 4% market share. If Opera loses to FF on Linux, big deal. Safari is dominant on Macs, but does any other browser manufacturer care? MS has yet to develop a Linux version of IE (not a surprise really) and dropped support for the Mac, and IE is still going strong because of how large the Windows userbase is. THAT is the target of all the browsers. That Opera isn’t winning in Linux is not a weakness.

Ashutosh Mishra

September 13, 2009

I seriously don’t think Opera can be considered a simple web browser anymore. It has far more features than any other browser at the moment; it’s sort of become a web-suite like thing. While it’s amazing how so many quality features can be packed into such a small, smooth and fast app, it can also confuse users (though I agree that Opera’s browser features are usually most prominent).

Oh, and those widgets aren’t doing ANY good at all – the Opera team should’ve realised that by now. If Opera wants to stay in competition, it has to do something different. All the “different”s it has been doing so far aren’t gaining it any more users.

cousin333

September 13, 2009

“Oh, and those widgets arenâ€™t doing ANY good at all”

I don’t agree. They are clearly not extensions as in FF, but there are some pretty useful. And I’m sure, they were included for the sake of mobile usage. Watch out for Opera Mobile 9.7 and its descendants.

But that’s true, that widgets were not so successful as one could expect.

Gabe

September 13, 2009

Opera 10 has some really nice features, but for those of us who use Comcast email, it lacks one very important feature: the ability to open the Smart Zone Communications Center so we can actually read our mail in the browser. Without this, I’ll stick with Firefox.

snoopy

September 13, 2009

Have you tried to… F12 > Edit Site Preferences > Network tab > change Browser Identification to FF or IE at all. That works for me for all sorts of “incompatiblity issues”. It is similar to User Agent Switcher on FF.

neville griffiths

December 24, 2009

snoopy, you are not from Canberra by any chance ? if so, best regards from revboy in Albury.

Ben

September 14, 2009

Funny idea.

I use Opera for internet.
I have Seamonkey for opening TV Schedules/ local cinema/ IMDB in tabs, and I use Firefox (with profiles for separate accounts) for checking webmail.

Just Stymie

Dan

September 13, 2009

Opera will be Opera and Firefox will be Firefox. Opera lacks a very important thing: extendability – the one that Firefox has. Even Chrome has a load of useful and important extensions. Opera is definitely not a choice of someone who is a developer or wants his browser to do so much more. Here is my extended opinion about Opera 10: http://is.gd/3eeY0

Bob

September 17, 2009

What kind of developer are you talking about? Opera’s Dragonfly has as many features as FF’s Firebug, with a much nicer interface. Everything you can do with Firebug you can do with Dragonfly, which pretty much covers JS and CSS developers.

mtRaven

September 13, 2009

But, as always, whenever a new version of a browser comes out I first check how many extensions it supports. Why don’t people even realize they can’t compete with the freedom of choosing the extensions you need in Firefox? It’s not the browser that they really love, it’s the add-ons. Opera = “too lazy to get Fx add-ons”, and that’s still seriously overlooking the power of Fx add-ons (like NoScript beats the crap out of Opera’s site preferences). I don’t see how a team of incredible developers can beat a whole community. Google has announced there will be add-ons for Chrome, and that’s very awesome.
Oh, and some people do fail at using Firefox. They should use it in safe mode (try it) if they don’t know how to get good extensions (without the usual crappy code), and let Firefox use 200+ MB of RAM. I’d kill it every time, and haven’t done so in weeks. ( <150 MB at peak usage)

jim

September 13, 2009

Opera is the only browser which can be installed to any os immediately without further tweaking ….firefox is providing tarballs for linux while opera is giving .deb for ubuntu and rpm for fedora etc and so many other OSes that we don’t even know ….(Firefox is f*#king waste in linux…it is very very slow and we could not install the latest version from their website as they are providing tarballs only….”DUMP FF !”)Opera 10 may be the fastest browser after Chrome….CHROME is my primary browser in Linux and Opera is my secondary….i uses FF very very rarely……..DUMP F…ing FIREFOX and Go for OPERA IN LINUX….

fem

September 13, 2009

…What?
Firefox is preinstalled into Ubuntu, of course it has .debs. If you’re trying to download mainstream software off a website then you really, honestly need to take a step back and learn how to use linux, I suspect you are wanting the firefox-3.5.deb which has been in the repos for a very long time now.
As for using Chrome in Linux, well that’s amazing, especially as it doesn’t even exist yet. You mean you use chromium which until recently was listed as ‘pre-alpha’ and is still highly unstable and lacking basic features.

jim

September 14, 2009

I’m using Linux Mint 7 now….i got FF 3 installed in it as default browser…After FF 3.5 released i installed it from linux mint website….but it shows as SHIRETOKO web browser…some web sites are showing shiretoko is not supported so download FF or IE etc…what the heck ..i’m using latest version of FF, downloaded from distro’s repo itself and telling it is not supported (and having a different name also)…Another method to install FF in linux is Ubuntuzilla….For that method we have to install ubuntuzilla first and using ubuntuzilla we have to download FF and install it…what the f…k,for installing latest version of FF; we have to download another software and install it and using that we have to install FF…its absolutely confusing…you will only get FF 3.5 in repo in ubuntu 9.10…

I’m using google CHROME 4.0.206.0 in my Linux Mint 7…Even though it is alpha,it is fairly stable….i installed it from their dev channel by downloading .deb file when it was released for the first time for linux…four days before i installed the chrome 4 ….after that it never crashed… i’m using youtube and all flash based sites are working fine in CHROME 4 in LINUX and it is very much similar to the CHROME in WINDOWS and it is supporting themes and extensions…i have even installed themes also…And i’m writing this from CHROME itself…if you have never tried it on linux…you can download it from the dev channel…i guarantee you that it is completely usable and it is 3 TIMES FASTER THAN FF 3.5…

Your comment is rather revealing – you sound like a ‘windows user on linux’ “hey, where’s the installer”.

Tarballs are available. If you know how to build, they are better and run faster on your system and have more advanced options. How is this a drawback?

jim

September 14, 2009

what about the speed difference….FF 3.5 in windows is faster than FF 3.5 in linux….FF in linux is very very slow compared to FF in windows…

If you have tried CHROME in linux you will understand the difference….CHROME in LINUX is faster than CHROME in windows i think(makeuseof should conduct a speed test between the browsers in Windows,Linux and Mac and should find out WHICH OPERATING SYSTEM HAS THE FASTEST BROWSER IN THE WORLD)..when you install chrome in linux it will automatically add the ppa to repos …so you will get the updates without any tweaking…I think it is the straight forward method….

Noah

September 13, 2009

It’s always good to have a tarball to install from. That way, you compile it yourself, and you get much better performance. Although they should perhaps make a .deb or .rpm file for beginners. And they are easy to make from the source

jim

September 13, 2009

Actually its real shame to tell that FF is open source and the great supporter of Linux platform while they can’t even provide separate installation files for deb,rpm,slack etc… while Great OPERA eventhough it is not open source,is showing great commitment to linux and even lesser known OSes by providing great support to them…….

Noah

September 13, 2009

… I agree with the fact that opera is better, but having a tar to install from is fine! It’s great! It’s much better than having a .deb, .rpm, or .bin! If you can’t handle the terminal, stay away from Linux.

jim

September 14, 2009

I’m a total newbie to linux….i never used tarball to install anything in linux…i believe linux is for masses and learning many commands in linux is not possible in very short time…but i’m trying to learn it…I JUST LOVE LINUX…

But why can’t FF just give different packages for different linux distros…Another point against FF is that FF is very very slow slow in LINUX compared to FF in windows…Why…?Bcoz FF is not committed to LINUX….It is just acting as it is very much committed to linux…I’m now using the latest build of google CHROME (4.0.206.0) in linux…I can surely tell that CHROME is 3 TIMES FASTER than FF and even CHROME in LINUX is FASTER than CHROME in WINDOWS…

Actually its not the matter of installation methods for FF….but it CLEARLY SHOWS the LACK of COMMITMENT of FF towards LINUX COMMUNITY….If they can give separate installation for around 70 languages why they can’t make separate installation files for different distros and OSes…why they stick with tarballs for linux….ONLY ONE ANSWER….LACK OF COMMITMENT TOWARDS LINUX…

Bob

nicholas turo

September 13, 2009

I like opera 10. It’s very quick. Chrome 2 probably is the the only browser that renders pages faster. My only major complaint is that the [send link as mail] option in the drop menu, after you right click anywhere on a page, sends me to a Russian configuration. It sort of like a Russian e-mail type thingee. When I hit compose message, that works fine. I’ve tried uninstalling and re-installing opera. Doesn’t help. The fact that the e-mail client is built into the browser instead of stand alone might have something to do with this; I really don’t know. I would greatly appreciate any suggestions.

Mr On Line

g.o.

September 13, 2009

I see the argument for FF extensions, but I suspect the majority of FF users would probably only use 1 or 2… if any. It’s easy to forget that the vast majority of net users don’t even read Digg, let alone code.

That said, I do and I use Opera. It’s just good. It’s got more features than any other browser, it’s lightweight and while Chrome edges it out on screen space, Opera wins on usability.

Mr On Line

Mike

September 13, 2009

I love how people are so willing to flaunt their ignorance without even a moment of checking to see if their assumptions have a remote basis in fact. Please note that I am using ignorance to mean uninformed here – not stupid as many people seem to take it these days.

Assumption : Opera has a lot of extras, therefore it must be large and bloated.
Reality : The installer is extremely small compared to most browsers. Opera 10 download = 10mb. Firefox 3.5 download = 17mb, without addons.

Assumption : Opera has no extensibility like add-ons / extentions.
Reality : It has user scripts, and has for about as long as I can remember. Granted they may not be as completely robust as full extensions, but you can even go so far as to run many of the much loved GreaseMonkey scripts in Opera:http://www.opera.com/browser/tutorials/userjs/examples/#greasemonkey

Assumption : Opera is not for developers.
Reality : I am a hardcore developer and have written code for almost 30 years and I happen to love Opera. Not only does it have great standards support, it has good developer tools as well ( Dragonfly anyone ).

All that said, there are intangibles or items that work for some that may not work for others. What feels to me as a solid browser may just not be quite right for other people. That’s fine – personally I like Firefox a lot too – however there are little things that just don’t work for me as well as they do in Opera. Same with Chrome – to each their own, that’s why we have choices.

Irwin M. Fletcher

September 13, 2009

I love Opera….I use it as my main browser here in the US, but I unfortunately find that some of my work sites don’t accept it as an approved browser. I suspect that it might have something to do with the built in PW cacher, but that’s just a guess.

That aside, I love how quick it is, I love the speed dial, I love the Turbo, the built in bit torrent client, built in mail client, how small it is, how small the mem footprint is, etc.

I pre load it in all the computers that I work on for friends, and I have yet to hear of anyone complain.

Alex River

Pivero

September 14, 2009

I really love the Notes feature. I use it a lot to fill in forms with that information they always ask, name, email, etc.

I am also glad they upgraded their email client, which I also use. It’s very practical to click on an email address and have just a tab to open up immediately. No need to have another program taking up resources or wait until it loads.

OH! And I do have a rather slow connection and the Turbo works really well in speeding things up, though it can create some rendering or compatibility problems sometimes.

The extensions in Firefox might be great, but I can’t be bothered with them, really. Opera gives me pretty much everything I need right out of the box.

Pivero

September 14, 2009

Oh yeah! And I was forgetting something, Opera’s history indexing is, IMO, better than FF’s.

Mr On Line

September 14, 2009

About the autofill .. there is a specific feature for that without the need to use notes ..
Go to Tools >> Preferences >> Forms .

Good Luck !

Pivero

September 14, 2009

Looks quite useful, though I wonder if it’ll also recognise forms in Czech or Spanish. Another thing I have there are some HTML tags and I do take notes for publishing later. Very useful feature, anyway.

And there are another couple of things I’ve just remember, “Past & Go” in the address and search bar and highlighting a web address, right click and have the option of going directly to the said address. Small things, but they make life a bit easier.

Ben

September 14, 2009

Clearly insane.

Firefox is built from the open source Mozilla.

If you don’t like the brand, then just go for Iceweasel!

I use Firefox 3.7. I can install through tarball, or download debs – but I prefer simply that they have a repository which I put into my package manager. This means when I call up my update manager (Press Super and U together) I get updates for not only Firefox 3.7, but any other software that I have in the repo’s.

How can this be considered unsupportive? I find this a very clear advantage of Linux over any other platform that I used – especially Windows. Very safe, very secure, and get this – I get a fresh build of Firefox EVERY DAY.

Ben

September 14, 2009

wow, sorry – reply didn’t work properly this time – this one replying to the guy complaining about Firefox support for Linux.

Julien

Thomas Cunningham

Jimothy Tomathy

September 14, 2009

I must admit opera is da shiznit. I have just tried 6 other web browsers in the past 3 days each of them trying all my favorite sites and to be honest, every other browser lacks the user friendliness and attention to detail that opera has.
I’m referring to
speed dial,
wand,
‘open with’ in the menu for the crappy Internet explorer only web-pages (aholes) yes some still exist,
search from the address bar with customizable search key letters,
address bar below the tabs to show that the address belongs to that tab (it just makes perfect sense to me so shoot me),
downloads in a ‘tab’ with built in download manager (goddamn i hate browser download managers that open in a small separate window),
built in bit-torrent client,
paste and go option (can’t live without, it’s like choc coating on ice cream at no extra cost),
history of closed tabs where you can click back as if the tab was never closed,
intelligent zoom in (one of the first browsers to offer whole page zoom and not just increase font size which just jumbles the page),
syncing of browsers on multiple machines cross platform,
add blocking (this is what attracted me to opera back in v6.0),
all features available out of the box just like a mac where u can use it straight after installation of the app. (no plug in search and having to decide or try 4 different types of mouse gesture plugins before you find one that works for you),
and most importantly… the most intelligent mouse gestures of any browser or plug in.
The list is huge, and i use all of it except for wigits. I’ve gotten used to opera so much that when i use other browsers on other computers it’s like i’m riding a bike but the seat is missing or brakes don’t work properly. That’s how well opera has done in making my expectations in a browser so high that i will not touch other browsers. It’s like just baked bread out of the oven compared to 1 day old bread, you can still eat it but u’d rather not.

Opera has 2 small drawbacks for me. I used to use it in windows and linux before I became a mac fanboi. when you click the X in opera(MS windows and linux) it closes the browser and remembers the tabs. In mac on the other hand, when you click the X it closes all tabs but doesn’t close the browser and when you restart opera, it starts with a previous ‘saved session’ and i have no idea on making it work like it does in windows and linux. I want to close the app and not the tabs at all ever, i want to decide when a tab never opens again. Any help??? And if any opera developers are reading this just out of curiosity please implement this, oh and fix flash support in mac, i’m having problems with portions of flash objects freezing.

Mike

September 14, 2009

The session memory has become one of my favorite things as well, and Opera does a *fantastic* job of it for me under almost all circumstances on Windows. However, I’ve had the same issue on my Mac. I’ve found that it seems to work best if I explicityly quit from the menu or command-q. If I just close the browser and then quit on the dock it doesn’t seem to work as reliably for me.

Jeeves

September 14, 2009

My top 6:
1. Link. I use several computers, I like to pick up the same bookmarks and notes in any.
2. Mouse gestures. You can do anything with keyboard, or mouse, or both, as standard. And voice, if you’re feeling like showing off.
3. Search. Uses aliases in the address bar, such as “g ” to do a Google for . Right-click any search box and add the ones you’ll use.
4. Optimized. Tried running FF or Chrome on a 98 box? Benchmarks are pointless with Opera because its the only browser build for browsing speed rather than benchmark results, and it has a proper memory manager, so uses available memory rather than needing a large amount and hanging onto it.
5. Secure. As in, more than “The worlds most secure browser.” Much like better standards support, faster, etc.
6. The state of all other browsers. Opera appeared back during the Browser Wars, and whilst NN and IE nuked it out, just sat there improving. Today, all other browsers showcase features that came from Opera. If imitation is the highest form of flattery, why should anyone hate Opera for making their preferred choice the product it is today?

Tobey

September 14, 2009

Opera
has lead the web scene for many years, be it pushing forward web standards or adding features thought out to the latest detail from user’s point of view. Although many browsers began to pick up its pace lately, I’m quite confident the Opera team will always come up with something revolutionary, as it has so many times in the past, and show the whole browser business the way to go.

Opera is more than a browser. It’s become a solid trustworthy institution providing web surfers with the best and fully optimized internet browsing suite. And for some time now, we get all their efforts in a tiny package as a free download to enjoy the rich features and versatility every day.

There may appear attractive and tempting features in other browsers from time to time and perhaps Opera should really consider its add-on extendability more seriously. And yet, it is fairly safe to say

“Dial” isn’t something new. Many people put together their own local static start-page way long before Opera even did anything remotely similar. Using a WYSIWYG editor if they couldn’t handle the simple syntax of HTML.

Synchronization has been available through third-party applications for ages. I personally prefer Mozilla’s Weave. It encrypts your data before uploading it to the server and you are free to use other servers than the “official” ones or even set up your own.

Finally, those “CPU usage” stats doesn’t state a squat. Taking up 100% during a couple of seconds are, in most cases, much better than taking up 10% during a period of several hours. Using 4.5% to display a blank page is much worse than using 60.6% to render WolfenFlickr 3D while at the same time running Peacekeeper and playing some music via a bloated flash video along with some other AJAX apps running in background tabs.

Bob

September 17, 2009

Opera provides those two things out of the box. I’d rather edit HTML of pages that other people will actually see and let Opera take care of my start page.
Opera also now provides synchronization out of the box. I’d rather have Opera handle it than another third party app that I’d have to download and set up, when Opera can just take care of it and all you have to do is register.

Chris

September 14, 2009

I have FF, IE, Opera and Safari for Win on my desktop usually, but while I appreciate Opera’s features, I’m afraid I just feel more comfortable with FF. Chrome got sacked off after about an hour, but I do open up Opera now and again.

Tobbi

Taufiq

September 15, 2009

Opera is great all the time. the built-in feature it has surpassed all. No one till now can’t make a browser so compact and resource friendly.
with Opera Mail clinet, I can check and reply my mails while firefox is still starting up.
I use firefox when I need to use add on and thats not an everyday case.

stanley

September 15, 2009

I love the features and the speed of opera….however, the start-up time is painfully slow. The star-up time is much slower than IE browser. Hopefully they can improve that dramatically. I really hope that i can stick with opera in the future rather than changing back to firefox due to opera’s slow start-up time.
Thanks

Tobey

September 16, 2009

@stanley:
Your Opera install may just be too cluttered over the time. Try a fresh install on another computer and you’ll see the start-up speed sky-rocketing. Remember, you can always backup most of the stuff, reinstall Opera completely and restore the base stones of your configuration by restoring the basic Opera files or use Opera Sync to backup the most important stuff before reinstalling.

Flex2k9

September 16, 2009

I agree as well. Firefox has always been my default. Not because of its popularity or has a high market share, but simply cause it works. Firefox has let me down on a number of situations in terms of crashing, slow speed, and rendering incompatibilities.I’m always open to new technologies, and Opera well, it’s in a world of its own. I don’t think you could 100% compare other browsers to this one. Lets not forget that just because there based out in some other country that they don’t have a higher market share anywhere else (Europe, Russia, Japan, China, Philippines, etc…) I have to say Opera 10 has greatly improved to support standards and is almost equally fast as any other. I’m hooked on Opera now and the best thing is I don’t have to look around thousands of extensions. to get what I need.(all the extensions I have in Firefox has greatly slowed and put my PC at risk for invulnerabilities as I have notice throughout the years.) Opera isn’t perfect, But has done enough to get me as a user. Everything out of the box, and they work flawlessly. I honestly don’t care about market share to say the least. All I know is that Opera has got me hooked and with very good reason. This is how browsers should really be in terms of out of the box. I have taken the time to learn all of its features and can now say this is the best of the best. If your a simple Internet user who just need to surf, download and log off by all means use IE, FF. Opera in my own opinion, was made for those who really want to get the best out of the Internet and faster, Such as the tech savvy. It’s not for everybody but it could be.

Extension are great, (FF) but really, many have suffered crashes and a decrease in performance. As in Opera you always get the same performance and experience less or no crashes at all. I will keep using FF for those pages that do not not support Opera, but that has become something I hardly ever have to do now. I like Firefox, the new IE8, the speedy cool looking chrome, but I am really glad to have Opera as my default..Cheers!

sam

September 17, 2009

hey!
ive been using opera for quite some time and i was very excited when opera 10 beta got out…now im using opera on all of my computers. opera 10 stable runs smoothly on a 850 MHz CPU. and the turbo feature is awesome. opera has some nifty features that put her in front of other web browsers but what it lacks the most is probably that ADD-ON feature firefox has. i know someone will say “you have widgets” but i still think that firefox add-ons >> opera widgets. maybe in time that will change but thats the only reason i sometimes use firefox (rarely though). im completely using opera and opera link syncing feature. it made my life so much easier. i often work on more than one pc and that makes it so easier when it comes to browsing. opera mail is very effective and quite good. i still havent got into it completely (lack of time, as usual) but i will try to investigate about importing address book from gmail or something like that…which would be great. i have been also using that built in IRC client you spoke about (yes i hang on IRC way too much) and i must say that i was really suprised at the quality of the built in client. it has it all a normal user needs.

when i sit in front of my pc i open opera and that is it…browsing,mail,chat…everything…
opera rocks!!

john

September 18, 2009

Got addicted to Opera when I first used it. I think I love the customization. I think it’s really cool how I can change cool skins easily and change the colors. That’s probably one of my favorite features! I get pretty sick of seeing the same Safari buttons and theme, and Opera changes the buttons and everything. Uber cool.

Plus, you can put tabs on top, bottom, and sides! And the address bar as well, you can put where you like.. You can’t do that in Safari or Firefox, so that’s got to be a big plus!
You can also change the progress bar to where you want, and I’ve been feeling pretty disappointed when the handy feature disappeared in Safari 4. I’m glad Opera has cool customizations.

I like the “trash” feature too, with the closed tabs. The turbo feature is like a blessing. ^_^

Dee

September 22, 2009

Unless you’re computer geek purist to the core Opera won’t win against FireFox. Most computer users, internet users are just your average joe-smoe. We look at the aesthetics of a browser. If it ain’t cute, bubbly and colorful we won’t like it.
Just the facts ma’am just the facts.

bob

September 22, 2009

I though FF was THE browser for computer geek purists. I’m a joe-smoe and out of the box, Opera looks a lot nicer than FF and works more seamlessly. It already has a lot of prepackaged features so I don’t have to go out of my way to download them in the form of plugins. When FF hogs memory with all its plugins, my joe-smoe self can’t think of anything else but to shut it down and start Opera.

KKW

Been a long time IE user and occasional FF/Chrome tester, I’m now using Opera as my preferred browser since yesterday.

There’re a few features which I like very much:

The ‘Fit to Width’ function is a nice touch when zooming is being used so that I don’t need to scroll left-right.

The convenient ‘Show Images/No Images’ button has its usage at times.

The most frequently used navigation buttons (<<, , >>, Stop/Refresh) are not at the far left corner like IE & FF. Closer to the center means lesser mouse travel distance.

Configurable Speed Dial pages are very practically useful as online services like dictionaries and translators can be accessed by 2 clicks.

There’re a few minor flaws though…

A few favorite sites of mine are having layout problem with Opera. I’ve given feedback thru ‘Report a Site Problem…’.

The tree display of the Bookmark panel is a bit messy when a lot of folders are opened. IE is better in this where only one Favorites folder is opened at one time i.e. one opens, the other closes automatically.

A Click-&-Cycle-Thru zoom level like IE is even more convenient. Better still if we can configure the zooming steps.

Resize of pictures when zooming in are not as smooth as IE and FF. Maybe better algorithm should be used?

Users should have the options not to include the Mail and BT clients where they’re not to be used to reduce the footprint of the installation.

Hope Opera gets improved further and eventually becomes the most preferred browser of all.

bob

September 27, 2009

Having problems with sites is a shame, especially considering that Opera has always been very good, if not the best, with web standards. Opera had the first browser to officially get a 100/100 on the Acid 3 test. Opera Software was at the forefront of HTML 5 development. But since Opera has 2% market share in english language websites, developers don’t feel the need to support it and instead spend their time making sure it looks good in IE6.

No they weren’t, Safari were first followed by Iris and Chrome.
Forefront for HTML5?? All they have are some form attributes that are replacements for simple Javascript checks. There’s no audio/video or client storage over there!

KKW

Markus Foti

October 7, 2009

to KKW:
Re: drop down arrow at the Back button

First thing I do when I install Opera is to replace the back and forward arrows with exactly that – Tools, Appearance, Buttons, Browser – drag and drop the ones with the drop down arrows and delete the default ones.

Vin D

October 14, 2009

I’ve been using Opera for a few years now.
I feel Opera has pushing out new features (tabbed browsing, built-in search tab, etc.) that forced others to play catch up.
I don’t see the need to use FF or IE except in certain cases where some sites do not function as they should in Opera. This, I believe is due to the page not conforming to web standards.
I also use the built-in mail-client. I find it more responsive and faster than Thunderbird (standalone version).

Randy

October 14, 2009

I’ve been a user of Opera for a long time now, since I discovered with them tabbed browsing and easy customization. Firefox (which is a very good)was not even in the pipes.
A feature I noticed it disappeared in V10 is the tools/advanced/cache feature. In previous versions, one would get all the cached info of our browsing session. Sometimes I could save items I could not save while browsing (like for instance an .flv file, something that is done very nicely in Firefox with Download Helper. Any idea what happened to this feature.
And thanks for making me discover some of the new features in Opera V10.

Electronic Cigarette Fan

December 5, 2009

Well, it’s great thing that they added some features in it. Because before, I heard that Opera was not as good as others like Firefox and etc. At least now, we discover some of the new features in Opera V10 and will surely help us more.

KKW

Alex

December 15, 2009

Great review, to decide whether to install Opera 10, have used opera as default for 3-4 yrs, I like it very much but 6 mths ago moved back to FFox 3.5, reason being about 10pc of websites I visit not loading properly. This spoils continuity when I have several tabs open, then having to use FF to view another site. This lack of continuity wasted time often losing track of which browser has which sites open.
The FFox 3.5 version has greatly improved speed now, only using 4 extensions, so is now my default. But I do prefer Opera for its flexable interface and usability. Its just that it wastes my time when sites don’t load properly. Yes this is the website code not Opera’s fault.
Opera 10 has an email client but I will always use Pegasus. BitTorrent I hardly need, Turbo sounds good but it renders compressed images badly and some sites not at all, have a fast connection so not needed. Networking files between friends ? I don’t think so, they will be busy at the time so a memory stick or CD usually an email link so they can work in their own time.
As my new OS (XP) installation is blindingly fast and loading in 13 seconds, I am limiting overwieght programs like Acrobat, all things Microsoft, Nero etc, I am beginning to think maybe not install Opera. Jury is out at the moment.

revboy

December 24, 2009

After 20 years of computing, I have never felt inclined to get into the programming side of things, but as far as sheer usage (KISS, keep it simple and sweet)
I have pretty well checked them all out !
So to put it simply Opera’s philosophy does it all for me !
LOVE IT.